cymbidia
unrepentant pervert
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2001
- Posts
- 8,786
I’ve had a little accident. Well, maybe not so much an accident as I’ve done something incredibly stupid and am paying the price. Anyway…
I’ve got a very bad chemical burn on my left (dominant hand) thumb. The burn is due to a *really* stupid error on my part. For the nonce, typing (signing checks, using the phone, doing dishes [yay!], etc) is going to be pretty difficult. The doc says it’ll be hurting less in a few days, though it’ll be some time healing.
Here’s what happened:
First, though, please know (because it relates directly to my stupid error) that I have *very* sensitive skin, a fact I’ve long known and made lots of adjustments for in terms of the products I buy that will touch my skin. Most products are too harsh for my skin and would, if I used them with abandon, produce anything from minor rashes to welts and even broken skin.
Last Friday afternoon I was sitting in my writing seminar and started rubbing inattentively at a tiny bump on my thumb. After awhile I looked at it more closely (the seminar was unusually boring) and thought it might be a wart. I’ve only had one wart in my life and that was on my elbow when I was about 8 or 9, so I’m not a wart expert or anything. I was pretty sure about my diagnosis about this one, for some reason.
On Saturday morning, while I was at the grocery store, I impulsively bought some band-aids with wart remover on them, Compound W. I put one on, following the directions first about cleaning it. After awhile, it began to burn a bit but I thought that’s what it was supposed to do; how can it dissolve away a wart without burning a little, right? As the burning got steadily more intense, I reasoned that I must be a weenie. If it hurt too much, they couldn’t possibly sell the stuff, right? So it must be *me* that thought it hurt a little too much for an over-the-counter wart remedy.
I went through the day, the burning steadily increasing, my denial matching it in strength. (I’ve got a very high tolerance for pain, as you know, but this was the bad kind. There’s a huge difference.)
By the time darkness fell down over my part of the world and the lights went one, I was in some serious pain and thinking, “What the hell is wrong with me? This thing isn’t a wart; warts don’t do this! I must have some terrible dread disease.” I went to take a shower and removed the wart pad during the event. It seemed to feel a little better without the wart remover. “Hmmm,” I thought. “Maybe I’ll leave it off awhile.”
By then the whole area was swollen and discolored and a pretty alarmingly large patch of what looked like a pus-filled blister had formed. My family took a look, everyone venturing the opinion that something was terribly wrong with my thumb.
(Here’s the really really really stupid part.) I put the salicylic acid infused wart remover pad back on, took some pretty powerful pain drugs (the kind I use for my migraines), and went to bed. In the morning it looked worse.
I removed the pad, not caring about the fucking wart anymore, and spent Sunday babying my left hand, and worrying over it, and cuddling it close to my body. By Sunday night, my entire thumb and even the area of my hand below my thumb were swollen and red. The whole outermost part of my thumb was hugely discolored and the initial white pocket had grown alarmingly. A big patch of necrotic-looking skin surrounded the white patch, and there was a big red streak running from the pussy-looking center, through the necrotic-looking skin and out into the swollen stuff.
It was ugly. Really ugly. One does not want to see one’s thumb looking like that. On Sunday night, my husband insisted that I go to the emergency room. We had no idea what was wrong but it was very obvious that something was.
The emergency room people (sorry niten) were idiots. Well, the doctor was an idiot, for sure. He kept muttering under his breath about “necrosis” and “necrotic skin” and never got close enough to touch it or get a good look at it. I’m not sure what he was afraid of, but he sure wasn’t going to catch it, you know? He gave me a prescription for some generic antibiotics, told me to go home and soak it in hot water, and gave me a number of a skin doc who specializes in weird skin diseases to call in the morning.
In the morning (that would be this morning), I found that the weird skin diseases doc was gone for a couple weeks, so I called my own doc. I was sorta scared by now, wondering what the HELL I had, you know?
Got an appointment with another doc in my doc’s practice (my doc doesn’t work on Monday) and saw him this afternoon. I told my little sordid tale about the wart that went wrong, answered his questions, and sat stoically while he probed and prodded at my owwie.
“Chemical burn,” he pronounced. “See how you still have sensation all though the affected area? This isn’t a big cap of pus, either; it’s a big cap of dead skin. HOW long did you have that Compound W band-aid on for again?”
To make a long story short, I’ve burned the hell out of myself and will be in some pain with this for some time. On the upside, I definitely killed the inconspicuous little tiny wart that was growing. On the downside, I’ll probably have a little divot in my thumb after it all heals (a slow process for burns, btw). On another upside, it’s not going to be a crater, just a divot.
And that’s why I won’t be posting/doing much email for a little while, even though i definitely owe some email and HATE that i have to back off posting for a few days right now. But... my thumb really hurts.
So i'll be reading and doing some writing, as i can, but mostly i'll be looking at this ugly thing and coming face-to-face with the reality that i, at least, am not immune to doing really stupid things on occasion.
cym
I’ve got a very bad chemical burn on my left (dominant hand) thumb. The burn is due to a *really* stupid error on my part. For the nonce, typing (signing checks, using the phone, doing dishes [yay!], etc) is going to be pretty difficult. The doc says it’ll be hurting less in a few days, though it’ll be some time healing.
Here’s what happened:
First, though, please know (because it relates directly to my stupid error) that I have *very* sensitive skin, a fact I’ve long known and made lots of adjustments for in terms of the products I buy that will touch my skin. Most products are too harsh for my skin and would, if I used them with abandon, produce anything from minor rashes to welts and even broken skin.
Last Friday afternoon I was sitting in my writing seminar and started rubbing inattentively at a tiny bump on my thumb. After awhile I looked at it more closely (the seminar was unusually boring) and thought it might be a wart. I’ve only had one wart in my life and that was on my elbow when I was about 8 or 9, so I’m not a wart expert or anything. I was pretty sure about my diagnosis about this one, for some reason.
On Saturday morning, while I was at the grocery store, I impulsively bought some band-aids with wart remover on them, Compound W. I put one on, following the directions first about cleaning it. After awhile, it began to burn a bit but I thought that’s what it was supposed to do; how can it dissolve away a wart without burning a little, right? As the burning got steadily more intense, I reasoned that I must be a weenie. If it hurt too much, they couldn’t possibly sell the stuff, right? So it must be *me* that thought it hurt a little too much for an over-the-counter wart remedy.
I went through the day, the burning steadily increasing, my denial matching it in strength. (I’ve got a very high tolerance for pain, as you know, but this was the bad kind. There’s a huge difference.)
By the time darkness fell down over my part of the world and the lights went one, I was in some serious pain and thinking, “What the hell is wrong with me? This thing isn’t a wart; warts don’t do this! I must have some terrible dread disease.” I went to take a shower and removed the wart pad during the event. It seemed to feel a little better without the wart remover. “Hmmm,” I thought. “Maybe I’ll leave it off awhile.”
By then the whole area was swollen and discolored and a pretty alarmingly large patch of what looked like a pus-filled blister had formed. My family took a look, everyone venturing the opinion that something was terribly wrong with my thumb.
(Here’s the really really really stupid part.) I put the salicylic acid infused wart remover pad back on, took some pretty powerful pain drugs (the kind I use for my migraines), and went to bed. In the morning it looked worse.
I removed the pad, not caring about the fucking wart anymore, and spent Sunday babying my left hand, and worrying over it, and cuddling it close to my body. By Sunday night, my entire thumb and even the area of my hand below my thumb were swollen and red. The whole outermost part of my thumb was hugely discolored and the initial white pocket had grown alarmingly. A big patch of necrotic-looking skin surrounded the white patch, and there was a big red streak running from the pussy-looking center, through the necrotic-looking skin and out into the swollen stuff.
It was ugly. Really ugly. One does not want to see one’s thumb looking like that. On Sunday night, my husband insisted that I go to the emergency room. We had no idea what was wrong but it was very obvious that something was.
The emergency room people (sorry niten) were idiots. Well, the doctor was an idiot, for sure. He kept muttering under his breath about “necrosis” and “necrotic skin” and never got close enough to touch it or get a good look at it. I’m not sure what he was afraid of, but he sure wasn’t going to catch it, you know? He gave me a prescription for some generic antibiotics, told me to go home and soak it in hot water, and gave me a number of a skin doc who specializes in weird skin diseases to call in the morning.
In the morning (that would be this morning), I found that the weird skin diseases doc was gone for a couple weeks, so I called my own doc. I was sorta scared by now, wondering what the HELL I had, you know?
Got an appointment with another doc in my doc’s practice (my doc doesn’t work on Monday) and saw him this afternoon. I told my little sordid tale about the wart that went wrong, answered his questions, and sat stoically while he probed and prodded at my owwie.
“Chemical burn,” he pronounced. “See how you still have sensation all though the affected area? This isn’t a big cap of pus, either; it’s a big cap of dead skin. HOW long did you have that Compound W band-aid on for again?”
To make a long story short, I’ve burned the hell out of myself and will be in some pain with this for some time. On the upside, I definitely killed the inconspicuous little tiny wart that was growing. On the downside, I’ll probably have a little divot in my thumb after it all heals (a slow process for burns, btw). On another upside, it’s not going to be a crater, just a divot.
And that’s why I won’t be posting/doing much email for a little while, even though i definitely owe some email and HATE that i have to back off posting for a few days right now. But... my thumb really hurts.
So i'll be reading and doing some writing, as i can, but mostly i'll be looking at this ugly thing and coming face-to-face with the reality that i, at least, am not immune to doing really stupid things on occasion.
cym
You don't need to reply. I'll use my imagination.--
